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International Human Rights Instruments As Domestic Laws

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International Human Rights Instruments As Domestic Laws UNITED NATIONS HRI Distr. International GENERAL HRI/CORE/1/Add.59/Rev.1 Human Rights 25 June 1996 Instruments Original: ENGLISH CORE DOCUMENT FORMING PART OF THE REPORTS OF STATES PARTIES FINLAND [10 August 1995] Paragraphs Page I. LAND AND THE PEOPLE ................ 1- 8 2 A. General .................... 1- 6 2 B. A short history ................ 7- 8 2 II. CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS AND GENERAL POLITICAL STRUCTURE ..................... 9-22 3 A. General .................... 9-12 3 B. The national language ............. 13-22 3 III. STATISTICAL INFORMATION .............. 23 5 IV. GENERAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK WITHIN WHICH HUMAN RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED ................... 24-39 7 V. INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY ............. 40-45 9 GE.96-16917 (E) I. LAND AND THE PEOPLE A. General 1. With a total area of 338,145 km2, Finland is the seventh largest country in Europe. The longest distance from south to north is 1,160 km and the greatest width 540 km. Its total frontier is 3,600 km in length: 2,571 km are land borders, 586 km with Sweden, 716 km with Norway, and 1,269 km with Russia. The coastline is about 1,100 km long. 2. Approximately 70 per cent of the land surface is forest, 15 per cent cultivated land, settlement or roads and 15 per cent lakes and wasteland, such as swamps, arctic fells and sand. 3. The population of Finland in 1992 reached the 5 million mark. The average population density is 16.5 inhabitants/km2, which varies from 130 in the industrialized south to between 2 and 3 in the sparsely populated regions of the north. 4. Finland may be classified as a post-industrial nation, and in 1991 an estimated 9 per cent of the population derived its livelihood from agriculture, 33 per cent from industry and 58 per cent from services. 5. To the Lutheran National Church of Finland belong 86.2 per cent of the population (4,375,047), to the Greek Orthodox Church in Finland 1 per cent of the population (53,103) and to the Roman Catholic Church of the country only 0.1 per cent of the population (5,300). Persons who are not members of any religious associations count 11.7 per cent (596,324). Some other Lutheran and Orthodox Churches, as well as other religious associations, are active in the country. 6. The two official languages in Finland are Finnish (93.1 per cent of the population; 4,727,290) and Swedish (5.82 per cent; 295,630). The Sami language is spoken by 1,738 persons (0.03 per cent). B. A short history 7. Three important dates from the whole of Finland’s political history are 1809, 1917 and 1995. In 1809, after a period of about 600 years, Finland ceased to be the easternmost part of the Kingdom of Sweden and became an autonomous grand duchy under the Russian Czar. On 6 December 1917, Parliament proclaimed Finland an independent republic. Both Swedish and Russian domination left their mark on the relations between Finland’s highest organs of Government. Finland became a member of the European Union in 1995. 8. Finland is a parliamentary democracy based on competition between political parties, power being divided among the highest organs of Government. II. CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS AND GENERAL POLITICAL STRUCTURE HRI/CORE/1/Add.59/Rev.1 page 4 A. General 9. The Finnish Constitution crystallizes the main principles of government in very plain terms. Power in Finland is vested in the people, who are represented by deputies assembled in Parliament. Legislative power is exercised by Parliament together with the President of the Republic. The supreme executive power is vested in the President. For the supreme government of the State there is also a Council of State consisting of a Prime Minister and a requisite number of ministers. Judicial power is vested in independent courts of law, at the highest level in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court. 10. The Constitution of Finland is based upon certain fundamental laws and to some extent upon customary law. The principal fundamental law is the Constitution Act, of 17 July 1919. This Act determines the basic democratic principles upon which the State of Finland is organized, the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens, and the competence and mutual relations of the principal organs of the State. The composition and the function of the representative assembly, Parliament, are laid down in the Parliament Act of 13 January 1928, as subsequently amended. In addition, there are two Acts of 25 November 1922, which have the status of fundamental law. One concerns the right of Parliament to review the legality of official actions taken by cabinet ministers and by the Chancellor of Justice, and the other the composition and competence of the High Court of Impeachment. 11. Furthermore, the Province of Åland, the Åland islands, enjoys an internationally guaranteed autonomy granted in 1921. The autonomy is specified in fundamental laws, the Autonomy Acts, the latest of which was enacted in 1991 and entered into force at the beginning of 1993. 12. For the purpose of local administration, Finland is divided into provinces and these again into urban and rural municipalities, each having its own government. Each municipality has a representative council, the members of which are elected by the people of the respective municipality by general suffrage. B. The national languages 13. According to the Constitution of Finland (1919) the national languages of the Republic are Finnish and Swedish. However, Swedish is spoken only by a minority of 5.8 per cent of the population. Bilingualism and the special position of Swedish are based on the fact that Finland, until 1809, was an integral part of the Kingdom of Sweden. For the most part the Swedish-speaking population is concentrated along the southern and western coasts. 14. The rights of Finnish citizens to use their mother tongue, whether Finnish HRI/CORE/1/Add.59/Rev.1 page 5 or Swedish, before courts and administrative authorities are guaranteed by the Constitution and the special Language Act (1922). These rights of the Finnish-speaking and the Swedish-speaking populations must be put into effect in accordance with the principle of equality. The cultural and economic needs of both of these language groups shall be met by the State in accordance with the same principle. 15. Laws and decrees, government bills to Parliament, as well as the official communications of Parliament to the Government, shall be drawn up in Finnish and Swedish. 16. According to the Language Act, a municipality is unilingual if the minority which speaks the other national language does not attain 8 per cent (or 3,000 persons). If the minority exceeds that, the municipality is bilingual. A bilingual municipality shall, however, not be declared unilingual before the minority has dropped below 6 per cent. 17. In accordance with the Constitution, Government maintains educational establishments of many kinds, from primary and secondary schools to various forms of professional and adult education, in both of the national languages. Some universities are to some degree bilingual. One of them, Åbo Akademi (in Turku), has Swedish as its language of instruction. 18. The Swedish newspapers, as well as radio and television programmes, have a long tradition in Finland. 19. The autonomy legislation of the Province of Åland, the Åland islands, contains some provisions which guarantee the dominance of Swedish in Åland. There are about 23,000 Swedish-speaking people in Åland representing 95 per cent of the population of the Province. 20. The Sami language is spoken by the Samis or the Lapps, considered as an indigenous people in Finland. There are approximately 6,400 Samis in the country and this represents 0.1 per cent of the total population. This is the number of Samis according to the estimate made by the Sami Parliament. The Statistical Yearbook of Finland gives the figure 1,738 for the Samis at end-year 1993. The counting methods of the two differ. Most of the Samis live in Lapland in the north of Finland. 21. There are three different Sami dialects in Finland. Most of the Samis speak Northern Sami. The other two dialects spoken in Finland are Inari Sami and Skolt Sami. 22. For preserving Sami culture and safeguarding their linguistic rights, the Sami Delegation (Sami Parliament) has drawn up a bill (1987) for the utilization of the Sami language before authorities. In 1990 the bill was passed by Parliament and the Act came into force at the beginning of 1992. HRI/CORE/1/Add.59/Rev.1 page 6 According to the amended Constitutional Act (969/1995) the Sami as an indigenous people and Romany people and other minorities have the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture. III. STATISTICAL INFORMATION 23. The following statistical information is presented according to the consolidated guidelines for the initial part of the reports of States parties. Annexed to this report is the Statistical Yearbook of Finland 1994*. The references to the pages of the Yearbook in the text of this report are to be found in parentheses after each passage. For more detailed information, see the referred pages of the Yearbook. Economic data National income (Per capita income) 72 337 Fmk (1993) (p. 275) 22 980 US$ (1992) (p. 600) Gross domestic product 478 656 000 000 Fmk (1993) (p. 270) 116 309 000 000 US$ (1992) (p. 602) Inflation 1.1% (1994) Net foreign debt 265 117 000 000 Fmk (1993) (p. 222) (External debt) Rate of unemployment 444 000 (1993) 17.9% (p. 607) Religion Population by religious affiliation and sex at end-year 1993 Lutheran National Church 1993 Total 4 375 047 86.2% Males 2 066 747 83.7% Females 2 308 300 88.5% Greek Orthodox Church in Finland 1993 * Available for consultation in the files of the Centre for Human Rights.
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